Coming Clean 9

“'Ponine,” Marius gently touched her shoulder, “'Ponine, wake up,” he shook her slightly.

Slowly her eyes opened and she jolted up after realizing that she had fallen asleep at the register, “Damn,” she groaned.

“Late night?” Marius asked.

Éponine yawned loudly, “Yeah... You could say that.”

“You really should take better care of yourself,” Marius scolded lightly.

“Aww, can't you take care of me?” Éponine teased and batted her eyelashes.

“I'm not your babysitter,” Marius smiled, “now get back to work and don't let Mabuef catch you.”

Éponine pouted but she turned back to her work with a sigh while she watched Marius go back to taking inventory and re-shelving books. She was still slightly dazed, she had not actually gone to sleep until she had finished the very last note of her song. Yes there was still some revising and refinement that needed to be done and it was still a long way until she deemed it to be “finished”. But she had even started writing a new song, well not necessarily “writing” but she had discovered  a chord progression that she had liked and had been fiddling with it. This meant that she had gotten barely three hours of sleep in total the night before, it was hardly even a wonder that she was barely functioning.

“Excuse me, I'd like to check out?” a customer approached the register, she had a very pushy tone in her voice.

“Sorry,” Éponine apologized, she then took the books that and scanned them quietly, “would you like a bag for those Ma'am?”

The woman simply nodded her head so Éponine put the books into the bag, “have a nice day,” Éponine smiled as the woman walked out of the store without even a glance back at her, she grumbled.

“You are just having a bad day aren't you?” Marius came up behind her.

“Gee Einstein what gave you that clue?” Éponine glared at him coldly, “sometimes I just really hate people...” she sighed.

“Funny that you work as a bartender,” Marius chuckled.

“That's different!” Éponine replied defensivly, “at least you guys are interesting! Not dried up, persnickety old ladies!” Marius laughed even harder.

“Yeah, yeah, go ahead and laugh at me, I'm sure you would feel my pain if you had only gotten three hours of sleep last night,” Éponine growled.

“Three hours? 'Ponine, what in gods name where you doing last night?” Marius cocked his head.

Éponine pushed a stray curl back behind her ear, “Nothing,” she shrugged.

“I've already told you that you need to take better care of yourself,” Marius shook his head.

“Well how do you know I wasn't with a guy?” Éponine wagged her eyebrows suggestively.

“The walls are paper thin, trust me I would have known,” Marius teased.

“Pontmercy, have I ever told you how much I hate you?” Éponine hissed, her cheeks were bright red.

“No,” Marius replied.

“Okay so let's skip the formalities,” Éponine replied sweetly before slapping him across the face, “don't make fun of my sex life!”

“Ouch!” Marius complained and he put his hand to his cheek, it now contained a red mark in the shape of Éponine's hand, “sheesh, touchy aren't we? And I was originally going to ask you if you wanted to get coffee and donuts on our break,” he rubbed his cheek slightly, “now I don't think I will.”

“Wait, you were what?” Éponine's jaw dropped, “but, but, I need caffeine!”

“Then go and get it by yourself!” Marius replied.

“But Marius!” Éponine began to pout, she stuck out her lower lip and tried to make herself look doe eyed, “I'm sorry?”

Marius sighed, “Fine, but if your hand leaves a mark you must swear not to tell the guys how this happened.”

“You think I want to be mocked by Courfeyrac for the rest of my life?” Éponine turned to him, “I'm not going to say word if you don't.”

“So we've got a deal?” Marius held out his hand.

“Deal,” Éponine grabbed his hand and squeezed it tight as she shook on it.

“Ow!” Marius yanked his hand away.

“Well I think it's about time you got back to work!” Éponine smiled.

“As long as you didn't break my fingers,” Marius grumbled.
Xxxxxxxxx

Éponine had managed to get in a quick cat nap before she had to get ready to work at the bar and while she wasn't one hundred percent she was feeling somewhat better. The students were once again wrapped up in their conversation so Éponine had brought in the notebook that Andre had given her and was busy writing out the melody she had come up with the previous night, “E, A, E...” she muttered, this time she made sure to glance up every once and awhile making sure that no one saw her in the midst of composing, and whenever they did approach the bar she would casually slid it behind the array of liquor bottles that lined the back of the bar. Just like now when Grantaire (who had clearly pre-gamed hard before the meeting) sidled over.

“Hey sweetheart, do a fella a favor and fetch me some Jack Daniels,” while his speech was not slurred she could see in his eyes just how drunk he really was, it almost impressed her as to just how well he could hold his liquor.

“I dunno sir,” Éponine shrugged, “I think I'd better cut you off for the night.”

“Aww... You can't do that to me!” Grantaire wined, “that would be like... Like... taking a pacifier from a baby! Or telling Jehan he can't play his flute or violin anymore!”

“Jehan is a musician?” Éponine asked, her interest peaked.

“Yeah,” Grantaire nodded his head, “probably could have gotten inta Julliard, and-” he lowered his voice, “could probably play Carnegie Hall some day.”

“Ahh...” Éponine replied in the same quiet tone, then she knit her eyebrows together, “why are we whispering?”

Grantaire shrugged, “So you still gonna cut me off?” he pouted.

Éponine sighed, “One last shot, but that's it, okay?”

“Thank you kind lady,” Grantaire smiled as Éponine passed him the shot glass which he downed without even wincing.

Éponine drummed her fingers against the table as she watched Jehan writing in a composition notebook as he always did. She was slowly learning about everyone's little quirks and traits (although she still couldn't pin anything on Enjolras), they certainly were an eclectic and odd bunch. She still couldn't see what the was the use of a college social justice group meeting in a lower east side bar but everyone was  allowed to have their dreams. If these boys thought they could change history by planning in this old speakeasy, so be it, “Thank god even crazy dreams come true,” Éponine smiled as she muttered to herself. Then it was like a light bulb had gone off in her head, she quickly grabbed the sheet music and scribbled those words across the top of the page. She hid it away before anyone could see and continued her night simply watching the guys as they talked, argued and debated, yes it was just a normal night.